O, N, H and Ar are extremely important for material performance, and are the key indices in material design, production and application. The quantitative analyzers for O, N and H have been widely used in scientific research and production. Unfortunately, the existing devices don't provide the capability of Ar analysis.
Today, O, N and H analysis is conducted mostly with pulse heating-inert gas fusion—infrared absorption & thermal conductivity analyzer. Its analysis process is as follows: The sample is fused in the graphite crucible of pulse heating electrode furnace, and O in the sample reacts with C in the graphite crucible at a high temperature to produce CO and a little bit CO2, while N and H are released as N2 and H2 at the high temperature. The inert carrier gas sweeps the products out. A non-dispersive infrared detector is used to analyze CO, or to analyze CO2 after all CO is transferred into CO2; a thermal conductivity detector is used for analyzing N2 or H2; thus, O, N and H contents in the sample are figured out through conversion.
The disadvantages of said analyzer are as follows: 1) Trace Ar in the materials can't be measured, and researches prove that Ar in the metal lattice affects the material performance to some extent; 2) The instrument structure, particularly, the gas conduit system, is quite complicated, and the complicated gas transformation or removal method has to be adopted to avoid interference; 3) In the event that the chromatographic column is not used for gas separation after releasing, at most two elements (e.g., O/N or O/H) can be measured at one time for one instrument, in the consecutive manner, not simultaneously; in the event that the chromatographic column is used, the analysis duration has to be prolonged; 4) The sensitivity of some existing instrument is up to 0.1 ppm for H analysis and 1 ppm for the other elements, which can't address the need of various new or special materials for analytical sensitivity.